Clinton: 2016 presidential candidates should be held to 'very high standard'

Hillary Rodham Clinton was in Chicago for a two-day visit, the appearances part of a campaign to sell her new book as well as a potential 2016 presidential candidacy. The former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady -- who was born in Chicago and raised in Park Ridge -- delivered a paid speech at United Fresh 2014, the convention of the United Fresh Produce Association, at McCormick Place and talked about her book with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at a Chicago Ideas Week special event.

Rick PearsonClout Street

Hillary Rodham Clinton brought the first day of her book tour to her birthplace of Chicago on Tuesday, telling food marketing executives that while she hasn’t decided on a second presidential bid, anyone running for the office in 2016 should be held to a “very high standard” of sharing their positive views for the future rather than engaging in negative attacks.

In a paid speech to the Food Marketing Institute and United Fresh Produce Association, the 66-year-old former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady also said partisanship and gridlock in Congress has weakened the view of America as a powerful economic and military force in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Speaking to about 4,000 people in the Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place, she echoed the title of her book, “Hard Choices,” by saying the decision of whether to run for the White House is “a really hard choice” that goes beyond “will you run or can you win.”

“What’s your vision for the future of our country and can you lead us there? Because that’s what I think leadership today has to be about,” said Clinton, who noted “so many ongoing arguments and disagreements” within the nation’s political system.

“I think anybody who chooses to run this next time should be held to a very high standard,” she added. “What do you want to accomplish for the country? Knock out all of the attacks and the negativity. Give us your positive vision about where you think America is able to go and how are you personally going to make that happen. I think answering those questions is a part of the decision process.”

In 2008, Clinton waged a lengthy and sometimes bitter but unsuccessful primary campaign for the Democratic nomination against then-home-state Sen. Barack Obama. She said as secretary of state, one of the most often-asked questions she got was how she could go to work for a former rival. Clinton said she decided to serve in the Obama administration as an “example I could hold up to people” about “how democracy is supposed to work.”

“I think we need more of that spirit back in Washington again,” she said. “Our infighting, our gridlock doesn’t reflect well on us.”

Clinton said that during disputes over a threatened U.S. default and later a brief government shutdown, she was able to see that other countries around the globe who relied on American leadership had a “sense of bewilderment.”

“I had this unusual perspective from looking far away,” she said. “Our leadership is not a birthright. We have to earn it generation by generation. We have to work together and get over the idea that compromise is a dirty word.”

Clinton touched on the problems of growing income inequity and said she believed a Senate-passed immigration reform bill had the best chance to get enacted this year, though House Republicans have shown no indication of taking up the measure.

She said leaders from both parties in Congress recognize the need to reform the nation’s immigration system, “but they’re scared because there’s a small minority of people in public life and those they represent who don’t seem to understand that one of our strongest and most important attributes is that we are still a nation of immigrants.”

Her comments on immigration sparked applause from the audience, where immigrants have long played a vital role in agriculture and crop production.

Clinton also said she regretted that the U.S. compound and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, were “vulnerable” to the Sept. 11, 2012 attack that led to the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. She said the “easiest decision” would be for the U.S. to leave such areas. “I regret deeply what happened, but I believe we have to be present in dangerous places,” Clinton said.

It was day one of a two-day visit to Chicago and her second trip to her hometown in little more than a month. In early May, she received the Order of Lincoln, the state’s highest honor, from Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn.

Earlier Tuesday, Clinton launched her tour with a book signing at a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan, where lines of people stretched for nearly three city blocks to get an autographed copy. Security at the store was tight.

But even before she got to the bookstore, she sought to refine remarks she made during an ABC interview in which she defended paid speeches she and former President Bill Clinton make by saying they were “dead broke” from legal bills when they left the White House.

She told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she and her husband “fully appreciate how hard life is for so many Americans,” following criticism from GOP Chairman Reince Priebus and others that she was out of touch with the financial struggles of average Americans.

Clinton said she and her husband “understand what that struggle is” for many families and that she wanted “to use the talent and resources that I have” so others have the same opportunities.

On Wednesday morning, Clinton will take part in a Chicago Ideas Week special event in the Loop, discussing her book and taking part in an question-and-answer session with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was a senior adviser in her husband’s White House. She is then scheduled to leave the city and continue her national book tour.